Scientists found that Tasmanian devil milk comprises an arsenal of antimicrobial compounds that can kill some of the most deadly infections known to modern science, including golden staph.

According to the study, Tasmanian devils can produce six different types of these antimicrobial compounds (while humans produce just one). Scientists are able to successfully synthesise them in the laboratory to test their efficiency against a number of drug-resistant pathogens.

“We showed that these devil peptides kill multi-drug resistant bacteria, which is really cool,” says Emma Peel, one of the researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia. “The next step for our research to if these peptides have anti-cancer potential, if they are killing superbugs, maybe they could kill the facial tumour.”